It was in the high 70’s at the start; very muggy. I chose to do my 8.3 mile course (West Peoria, then the 4 mile part of the 8.1 course, going up to Cornstalk), with 4 extra 1.23 mile lower loops. Distance: 13.1-13.2 or so (half marathon) and it took me 3:23:15. Ironically, I forgot my water bottle at home but still needed two bathroom stops; I also used the park water fountains a couple of times.

I was a little bit sluggish. But..I did hear the cry of a bullfrog when I was in lower Bradley Park (there is a canal).

Colleges and universities There have been a few articles in the news about student unrest in universities; for example. Now I linked to an article from The Nation (written by a professor) which, of course, enables this sort of behavior (e. g. students issuing “demands” to college presidents and the like).

What is going on? Jerry Coyne directs us to this Jonathan Haidt article: he claims that certain groups are conferred “victim status” even while in high school and everyone else is told to “shut up and listen” (so to speak). He comments that this happens in high school:

And Centerville High is not alone. Last summer I had a conversation with some boys who attend one of the nation’s top prep schools, in New England. They reported the same thing: as white males, they are constantly on eggshells, afraid to speak up on any remotely controversial topic lest they be sent to the “equality police” (that was their term for the multicultural center). I probed to see if their fear extended beyond the classroom. I asked them what they would do if there was a new student at their school, from, say Yemen. Would they feel free to ask the student questions about his or her country? No, they said, it’s too risky, a question could be perceived as offensive.
You might think that this is some sort of justice — white males have enjoyed positions of privilege for centuries, and now they are getting a taste of their own medicine. But these are children. And remember that most students who are in a victim group for one topic are in the “oppressor” group for another. So everyone is on eggshells sometimes; all students at Centerville High learn to engage with books, ideas, and people using the twin habits of defensive self-censorship and vindictive protectiveness.
And then… they go off to college and learn new ways to gain status by expressing collective anger at those who disagree. They curse professors and spit on visiting speakers at Yale. They shut down newspapers at Wesleyan. They torment a dean who was trying to help them at Claremont McKenna. They threaten and torment fellow students at Dartmouth. And in all cases, they demand that adults in power DO SOMETHING to punish those whose words and views offend them. Their high schools have thoroughly socialized them into what sociologists call victimhood culture, which weakens students by turning them into “moral dependents” who cannot deal with problems on their own. They must get adult authorities to validate their victim status.
So they issue ultimatums to college presidents, and, as we saw at Yale, the college presidents meet their deadlines, give them much of what they demanded, commit their schools to an ever tighter embrace of victimhood culture, and say nothing to criticize the bullying, threats, and intimidation tactics that have created a culture of intense fear for anyone who might even consider questioning the prevailing moral matrix. What do you suppose a conversation about race or gender will look like in any Yale classroom ten years from now? Who will dare to challenge the orthodox narrative imposed by victimhood culture? The “Next Yale” that activists are demanding will make today’s Centerville High look like Plato’s Academy by comparison.

There are some tough issues that deserve a fearless and complete intellectual investigation (e. g. is affirmative action a good idea?) and shouting down different points of view…well…that does no good at all. After all, are people spending lots of time, effort and money to find ways to be offended?

And speaking of higher education, I wish that columnists who write “colleges and universities should do this” actually knew what they were talking about. This person does not. Example: when he talks about faculty and summer, he should have researched the topic; he would have found out that many of us (tenured professors) have 9-10 month contracts. As far as costs: the new technology (computers, internet) is a huge cost driver. A professor writes a nice response.

Well, we had a lunch date with a friend and I got a latish start and, well, I didn’t feel super when I started out. But I went out anyway.
It was sticky (75 F, 84 percent humidity at the start; 85 F, 67 percent humidity at the end. But it wasn’t raining. Out: I was at the 7.91 mile mark in 2:03 (15:35 pace) and I made the return trip in 1:54 (14:25 pace); then I added a 90 seconds out, 90 seconds back along Cooper to get me to a full 16 miles.

Highlights:
1. A couple of young men saw me walking back and said “he is powerwalking like a MOFO”…and it was said in a cheerful way. I remarked that I had 15 down at that point.
2. Along the trail between Affina and Bishop Hill, there are some green frogs (rana clamitans) that were just croaking their hearts out.
3. A couple of cute GILFs were riding their bikes and came up on me and said “on your left” which sort of startled me. One said “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to startle you” but I was pleasant.
4. The return trip was 10 minutes faster than my out trip, even though I really didn’t have that much of an elevation change advantage.
5. My knees and legs felt great during the walk, but I “felt it” afterward. But yes, this was one of my better “longish” walks over the past 5 years or so.

I think that I’ll do this sort of alternating; maybe 20 next weekend, then 16 the weekend after that and keep that pattern up until it is time to taper for my October marathon (Peoria). I might take on a winter challenge; either a straight 50 mile event (15 hour time limit and a paved bike path course) or perhaps one of those “Saturday/Sunday” marathon challenges. I am not sure; I need to see how my training goes. Or I might enter a 55 hour event with the goal of getting 100 miles in under 48 hours (easy bike path course). Who knows. But I think that for right now I need to focus on walking a “respectable” marathon (read: sub 5:30 in good weather).

The skinny: 20 miles in 4:59:18, with the final 4 miles (W. Peoria Heading course) being done in 58:49. I also added 6:14 in case my course was short (I sort of winged part of it) to get 5:05:32 for 20.4 miles.

Weather: overcast with periods of sun; 66 F with 65 percent humidity at the start; 80 F with 52 percent humidity at the finish; I beat the cold front with rain by about 10 minutes.

I did my best walking in the final hour; that might be because that was the flat part of the course.

For Peoria types:
Cooper to Laura (onto the BU campus) to Maplewood to Columbia Terrace. Then to Broadway all the way to McClure. Then to Bootz, Corrington, Bigelow to Forrest Hill (turn right). Take that to Central, go north to Peoria Heights (Marietta) to Prospect to Tower Park. Pit stop.
Then to Grandview, to East Grandview Dr., Harmon, Bishop Hill where I took the Rock Island trail (bikepath) all the way past Affina into Springdale Cemetery. Then to the bottom of Glenn Oak Park, up the hill, around the Park District Building, through the new parking lot along the sidewalk; exit, turn north on Prospect, turn left (West) on Forrest Hill….retrace the out part except when I got to Columbia Terrace, I kept going all the way to Parkside.

Then along Main/Western and turn onto Heading and go until it runs out. Then left, right to Swords, left, first left then down a few blocks and turn right to get to Rohmann, right on Sterling past the Cemetery and right on Kickapoo..through the brick street neighborhoods to Manor Parkway by the golf course..then to Waverly all the way to Rohmann then right to Western then right on Bradley ave. to Cooper.

It was a bit of everything; I saw other people on the course.

While it was my best long walk of the year and my best week since October 2014, it still wasn’t much. I have to be aware of that.

I feel like the millennium is at hand: The Nation is taking on the anti-GMO activists, with an article by Madeline Ostrander that asks the question Can GMOs Help Feed a Hot and Hungry World?, with the answer provided in the subtitle: “Not if activists succeed in making the genetic modification of food politically unsustainable”. This is a blow for rationality I would not at all have expected from The Nation (their idea of balanced coverage of the nuclear issue, for example, is a debate between an anti-nuclear person and a fanatically anti-nuclear one). Maybe the left really is on it’s way to being “the reality based community”…

You know it is a sad day when I am pleasantly surprised by a competent article coming from The Nation.

The Massachusetts transplant is gearing up for his campaign against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) this fall by literally running for office. He’s also biking. And swimming. And hiking. And taking jump shots. If it’s a weekend, you can expect to find the Republican candidate tweeting a photo of his latest feat of strength. Things might not work out for Brown in November, but Brown will almost certainly work out.

Uh, workout/sports photos are bad because….???? Seriously: are photos for some politician holding yet another baby, hunting, or eating another hotdog at a county fair supposed to be better?

At least this article didn’t accuse him of “fat shaming”, but hey, I haven’t read the comments. 🙂

PS: politically speaking, I am not a fan of his and I hope that his opponent wins this election. But really???

Today: more marathon walk training. It was damp, sort of warm and humid; it started off at 68 F, 90 percent humidity and ended at 75 F, 79 percent humidity:

I wasn’t sure as to what course I wanted to do, so I found myself heading down the bluff toward the river trail. But my initial pace was painfully slow! It took me 16 minutes to do the first 1.03 miles (along Moss Avenue). So I knew that somewhere I’d need to put in some “pick ups” to get within shouting distance of a marathon race pace.

So I walked down the trail and up to the old Woodruff track (5.17 miles), did 32 laps on the track (mostly right on the outside line of lane 1 as it is a 400 meter track) and then walked back.

Times: 1:17:35 for the first 5.17 miles
1:50:07 for 8 track miles (3:07:42)
1:16:58 back
4:24:40 for 18.35

2 mile segment times: 27:48, 27:37, 27:23, 27:16 track

This walk: I had to stretch my back (McKenzie exercises) prior to getting out there. Also this weird weather has been playing havoc with my left knee. But I had no problems while out there.

It was drizzling (lightly) at the start. The out and back were the easiest parts; the stuff on the track was the toughest stretch. I kept telling myself “I goat this”. The final stretch was easier than I had feared it would be; note the “back” stretch is net uphill so it is good that it was a tiny bit faster than the outstretch.

This is my 5’th walk of over 17 miles in my build up. The marathon is 6 weeks away; that gives me 4 training weeks left. One week will feature a parent’s weekend trip to see my daughter, and one will feature a hilly half marathon; I might have to get in an easy 4 miles prior to that.

I’ll have MP walks (10 miles) at pace on Wednesdays when I don’t have a long walk on Tuesday.

Reptiles and Amphibians: Barbara and I usually eat Indian lunch on Sundays. Afterward, we went to a Reptile/Amphibian exhibition. I think that the African Bullfrog stole the show. It is one of those frogs that sure looks like a toad. There were some geckos and other iguanas, turtles, and yes, snakes.

Toad Brain Activity
A friend alerted me to this post, which is about how a toad reacts to stimuli which mimics prey in the wild. There was a bit of a “ha, ha, watch the stupid toad get “owned”” but the videos are quite interesting and illuminate how science works.

First, there is the observation (toad hunting a worm).

(photo: Heidi Carpenter)

Then some conjectures are made: “what type of stimuli elicits a “hunt” response”?
Then there is an series of “experiment followed by a refined conjecture”; here we see what “looks like” prey to the toad and what doesn’t, and what sort of response does the toad make? Then we look at the signals in the toad’s brain.

It turns out that there are a couple of receptors involved: one if the “predator” sensor is activated, it sends a signal which cancels the “hunt maneuver” response. How is this verified: one can disconnect the “canceling signal” pathway.

Then the whole lot is modeled by a neural network which elicits the predicted response. Yes, there is some mathematics that underlies this, which includes signal theory, neural networks, probability and possibly fuzzy set theory as the “predator/prey” sets appear to be fuzzy.

So I waited until 8:30 (mistake) and mile 1.02 was too fast for the conditions and my not being warmed up (9:34). I was at 3.2 in 30:12 and then I said “bleep it” and walked the last mile.
It was 76 F with 76 percent humidity by then (74 at the start) and I was dying.

At least the mile is short and the heat shouldn’t be much of a factor.

About Blueollie

To keep track of my sports activities. I rarely train for anything anymore; mostly I just do workouts of the following types: running, walking, weight lifting and swimming. My best ultra accomplishment was walking 101 miles in 24 hours in 2004. These days, I walk a marathon every once in a while (5:50 to 7 hours) There was a time when I could run a sub 40 minute 10K (did that once), but that was another lifetime ago; these a days 2427-282525:50-27:45 28-31 minutes for a 5K would be more like it. I also have an off and on interest in yoga and in weight training. My lifetime PB in the bench is 310; currently I do sets of 4-5 with 190 185.

Best this year has been 200 (relatively easy).

To discuss the football, basketball or baseball game I’ve been to. Since 2011, I started to attend live football games regularly (University of Illinois, sometimes Illinois State, sometimes either the Colts or Bears of the NFL…don’t get me started on the Rams) ; I’ve attended Bradley Basketball games (men and women) for some time. In the past 3 years, I started to watch live baseball again (mostly the Peoria Chiefs (low A affiliate of the Cardinals) and Bradley University; sometimes the Normal Cornbelters (Frontier League; similar to low A level ball).

From time to time, I post what I am thinking about mathematically

I often post links to science articles, especially articles about cosmology and evolution.

I am very sympathetic to the “new atheist” movement, though some might consider me to be an agnostic. I reject any notion of a deity that interferes with physical events, but remain agnostic to the idea that there might be something “grand and wonderful” (Dawkins’ phrase) outside of our current spacetime continuum.

I am a liberal Democrat who thinks that the current social atmosphere is tilted way too far toward the interests of big business, and I reject the idea that a “free market” cures all ills, though pure socialism doesn’t work either. I am also a believer in the freedom of speech, including speech that I might not like. Also, I’ve been involved (to a moderate degree) with political campaigns, ranging from City Council races up to Presidential races.

I like to post photos of trips and vacations.

I like women in spandex. 🙂

The 2016 election: I voted for Hillary Clinton and was dismayed that she lost the Electoral College, though I take a bit of comfort that a plurality of voters preferred her (by just over 2 percentage points!)

I see Donald Trump as an unqualified amateur who lacks the humility and deportment to be an effective president; I sure hope the time proves me wrong. It does not appear that I am wrong though (as of June, 2018) I’ve been wrong before (e. g. my election prediction) and will be wrong again. I hope this is one of those times.